We crawled out of bed at 3.45am and silently got ready trying not to disturb others in our Sydney dorm room. At 4.45am a minivan collected us from our hostel and delivered us at the airport at half 5. We checked into our flight bound for Christchurch, went through passport control and wandered around the duty free as we waited to board the plane. The flight was only 3hours and went quite quickly, the last half hour was particularly amazing as we could see the New Zealand mountains below as we came into land.

Once back on the ground we collected our bags and met up with a "Britz" rep who drove us around to the office where we could check in for our CAMPERVAN!! We couldn't wait and had been looking forward to the freedom of driving ourselves and having somewhere to dump our things. It's nice to know that we can have 6 weeks rucksack freeJ. The camper turned out to be pretty massive with more room than we realised (or to swing a cat…as the ad described it). We unpacked and hid our rucksacks in the storage compartments under the seats at the back (out of sight out of mind!). We unpacked the equipment that had been provided as part of the rental agreement including bedding, pots, pans, plates, etc. and placed everything in secure positions. We then went through all the instruction and checked and doubled checked that we knew how everything worked before Ben took to the wheel and we drove off the forecourt and out onto the New Zealand roads. We decided to head north to Kaikoura as we had been told it was a fairly straight road and would give us chance to get used to the vehicle. Half way there we stopped for food and to swap places. My first time at driving anything longer than a VW polo and all went to plan with no disasters. We made it to Kaikoura just before dark and found the local supermarket to stock up our cupboards and fridge with the essentials. Then not really being too sure of the camping rules we picked a quite layby and set up home for the night. The back part of the van has 2 long bench seats, which serve as the dining area during the day and then pull out into a bed for the night. We pulled out a metal leg and wooden table and set this up inbetween the seats before making up sandwiches for tea. However, the metal leg for the table was not as tightly fitted as we thought and within seconds of sitting down the whole thing collapsed with the salad cream jar flying one way and the beetroot jar the other (neither had the lids on!). The table went away and has not come back out J.

The next morning we woke up to clear blue skies and although it was now a lot cooler than Australia the view was not disappointing. We opened our curtains to look out over the sea and beyond to huge snow-capped mountains. We spent the day walking around Kaikoura, enjoying freshly caught scallops for lunch and watching seals on the rocks just off shore. We went on a 3 hour walk around the Kaikoura Peninsula and were stunned at the breath taking views.

The following day we packed up and set off back to Christchurch as our plan was to loop the South Island, heading south to begin with. On the way to Christchurch we stopped at a small vegetable stall where we picked up a couple of bargains and then headed on to Christchurch. We got to Christchurch for mid-afternoon and headed into the city centre to look around. We were shocked by the large amount of damage that still exists from the earthquake, with all the central shopping streets still cordoned off and the tram network completely shut down. We peered through the metal fencing and into the restricted area, which now resembles a ghost town.

We found a holiday park just outside of Christchurch and paid to plug our campervan in here for the night. We need to plug in and charge up every now and again in order for the lights and water pump to continue running on the nights when we "freedom camp". That night we got out the maps and planned our trip around the south island. First thing in the morning we would get up and make our way to Lake Tekapo.